ITTS Update

Since the the beginning of October, we’ve had sporadic reports of problems with the membership renewal form on the ALA website. Sometimes it was slow-loading pages, other times there were broken links or the authentication didn’t work.

Until last week, we were unable to replicate the problems, which made troubleshooting them difficult. We knew it wasn’t something across the board, because online transactions are actually up from last year for the period from September 1 through November 6.

So there was a problem, but it wasn’t happening to enough people to help us pinpoint where it was occurring. However, with the help of a couple of very patient members, we’ve finally figured it out. There were actually three separate problems, which is why it took so long to track down the threads.

The first was a bad redirect, now fixed. The second was the renewal form itself. We tried to improve its usability but accidentally broke some code without realizing it. Again, this is fixed now. The third issue required more time to deal with, because it involved upgrading the ecommerce server to the same version of ColdFusion that the website uses. In the process, we rebuilt that server from scratch, so hopefully the software and code are both a lot cleaner now.

I think part of the problem is communication, because when people have faxed or mailed us print renewal forms in the past, one of the things they’ve told us is that they were unable to register online. We do work with librarians who truly can’t (or don’t want to) register online, but that’s different from “your website won’t let me register online.” Clearly, we need to ask better questions when someone tells us that, so please don’t be offended when we do. We know you just want to complete your transaction and move on, but we need to get a better understanding of went wrong for you. So when you report this type of problem, it helps if you can tell us the operating system for your computer, the version number of the browser you’re using so that we can try to replicate the issue, and the link you used to get to the page.

So we think all is well now, but if you run into any problems using forms on our site or encounter any slow-loading pages (especially involving ecommerce), please report them to us immediately so that we can follow up with you.

And to the member who kept trying to renew for three weeks before finally giving in and calling, thanks for being so persistent! Seriously, though, if that happens again, please don’t wait that long to let us know you’re encountering a problem. We know you were probably giving us the benefit of the doubt because of the site redesign, and we really appreciate your repeated attempts, but no one should have to go through that kind of misery. Send us an email, use the site’s feedback form, give us a call, leave a comment on any post here, whatever - we just want to help resolve it for you.

Posted by Jenny under website | No Comments »

1. Website (Louise)

Critical things you need to know about:

a. You need to fill out the new SEO (Search Engine Optimization) metadata fields because they are now required; if you get an error message on check-in about a required field not being filled out, it’s probably a metadata field

question - we can use phrases, too?
answer - yes, just separate them by commas

need congruency between the metadata title field and the actual title field - they have to match for the alphabetization to work properly on the listings pages

b.  Some listing pages are still blank (eg, “Government Documents,” even though we have a whole Round Table devoted to this topic) and need content. Karen Muller will tag the things she knows are applicable, but it’s going to take a coordinated effort - everyone needs to pitch in to the areas that are relevant to them, because if we don’t add the content, we need to take down the aggregated pages.

c. We’re seeing some problems with Firefox 3 - Collage won’t let you upload anything (images, etc.). We also think we’re having transaction problems on the site with FF3, so if you receive a complaint, please ask the user if they are using this version of the browser. We’re trying to determine if we have a systematic “superbrowser compatability problem” or if it’s an isolated issue.

Please help us track this issue and let us know when you hear about problems with slow pages, authentication issues, etc.

2. Web Editorial Board (Louise)

Louise noted a handout about the purpose of the Web Editorial Board Tag Team, a group that has rights to the entire site and can make quick fixes without requiring permissions first. These are considered “Tier 1″ changes, and the Team will always communicate changes to the owning unit, even if it’s afterwards. The charge empowers the team to handle these types of issues.

Tier 2 fixes will have the Tag Team contacting the owning unit before making the suggested changes.

Tier 3 would be things the Team discusses with you and you then change.

The approach will be an ad-hoc one, although we may split up the work to handle specific sections of the site.

If you have questions about any of this, contact Louise or Karen Muller.

3. ALA Connect (Jenny)

Jenny showed the prototype, pre-alpha testing site for ALA Connect to give staff a sense of how the site functions

4. Keeping up with developments (Sherri)

Blog w/RSS Feed - http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wikis - http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage  ;  http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

5. Q&A / Wrap up

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect & CMS & ITTS Update meetings & Web Editorial Bd | No Comments »

1. Website Redesign/IA Rollout (Sherri and Karen)

the website is a work in progress
we’ve been focusing on stability issues with the ActiveMatter server (forms, ecommerce transactions, etc.)
- updated the Access databases to Microsoft SQL databases, restricted access to a small number of IP addresses to help address this issue
- this also let us restrict search engines from indexing old content
- got rid of tagged pages from the old ActiveMatter server

we’re in the process of upgrading to a new server with more disk space and a faster processor
- hope to have that done in the next week

working with Duo on tagged content displays, division news feeds, and RSS feeds on the home page

a few weeks ago, a few of us met with Michael Stephens, the current chair of the Web Advisory Committee and came up with two objectives for the site
- for current information (this requires a systematically consistent approach for tagging, etc.)
- a marketing tool

the Web Editorial Board will try to lead several initiatives in these areas
- encouraging staff with web responsibilities to add keeping the site current as a goal on their evaluations
- need some quality control to achieve this; will allow us to set goals (”get your shadow assets down 10% from where it is today,” etc.)
- revamping the Web Editorial Board into two separate teams
- “tag team” - will review the site structure, will consult with offices on restructuring content; create standards; review and finalize the web style guide; examining the website to determine to what extent it should be used as an archive; examining advantages and disadvantages of decentralized site management; tagging items for listing pages; checking for ALT text on images; proper page headlines; use of transcripts for audio and video files; procedural documentation; etc.
- “communications impact team” - encourage use of images, pods, etc.; consulting with units to develop individual areas of the site for maximum effect; optimizing pages; accessibility issues

the Web Editorial Board is going to expand and add more members

2. ALA Connect (Jenny)

just got back from vacation yesterday so hasn’t had a chance to check in with the development site to see recent changes made to the functionality
Urban Insight has successfully imported the active committees from iMIS and categorized them into “communities” (currently divisions), “committees,” and “events”
hope to have a demo to show on November 18, as we are hoping to alpha test in November and beta test in December for a roll out before Midwinter in January

3. Wiki Migration (Matt)

all wikis currently hosted at wikis.ala.org will be moved to Dreamhost domains because the wikis.ala.org server was never really intended to house these applications
Matt will be able to migrate 6-8 wikis each week without requiring the wiki owners to do anything
he’ll send out a message about this today or tomorrow
he’ll change nothing about your wiki, other than the beginnings of the URL (”wikis.ala.org/acrlwiki” will become something like “acrl.ala.org/acrlwiki” in the domain unless you specify otherwise) - basically, “wikis” just becomes your acronym

migrating the wikis to Dreamhost has some other benefits, including the addition of an audio captcha for spam control

all of this will happen over the next 4-5 weeks, and Matt will notify you when this is happening for your site
while your wiki is migrated, it will be down for 1-2 hours

everything in your current wiki will get migrated, including content, users, blocked users, images, files, etc.

4. Virtual Private Hosting (Matt)

if you already have blogs, wikis, or Moodle on Dreamhost, you may have noticed that it slows down from time-to-time
but earlier this month, we upgraded to “virtual private hosting” service, which means we’re now paying a monthly fee for reserved processor time and more importantly, memory

this means we’ll no longer be throttled back when other users overload the server, so speed and response time should improve dramatically and should be more consistent
we also have no maximum ceiling now, as our usage is burstable

if you do encounter problems, let Matt know right away because he has more options for troubleshooting now (such as rebooting our virtual server)

Moodle chat now works (insofar as Moodle chat works)

Matt also noted that when you use FTP on Dreamhost, make sure you’re using your domain name (eg, rusa.ala.org), rather than a server name

5. Meeting room resources in Outlook (Sherri)

coming soon - we’ll be implementing the ability to book meeting rooms in Outlook
just have to get this set up and will then send out a tech tip about it

6. Keeping up with developments
Blog w/RSS Feed - http://itts.ala.org/update/
Wikis - http://wikis.ala.org/learningcollage; http://wikis.ala.org/webplanning

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect & Blogs & Wikis & ITTS Update meetings & Online Communities & Web Editorial Bd & Web Planning | No Comments »

Even as ALA staff work furiously to resolve issues with the new website, we’re still pushing forward with ALA Connect. If you felt the earth rumble a couple of days ago, it’s because we’re all doing the happy dance over here because the iMIS import and connection is fully functional.

That means members will be able to log into the system using their regular website login information, and Connect will automatically know which ALA groups they are affiliated with (divisions, round tables, sections, and conference registrations). We’ve had high hopes for this all along, but it’s still amazing to see it in action. In the screenshot below, you can see me logged in to view the ALSC community. Because I’m a member of the Association for Library Service to Children, I can see content posted to the group.

However, when I go to the Association for College & Research Libraries group, I’m not a member so I can’t see any content, which means the system is working as it should after the initial import.

There’s still a lot of work to do on the interface, including the creation of help documents and tutorials. All in all, though, we’re still taking 30 seconds to enjoy staring at the screen with huge grins on our faces.

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect & iMIS | No Comments »

The Website Advisory Committee is proactively helping us find bugs in the new website now that it’s officially live, so Aaron Dobbs started a new area on the Web Planning wiki for tracking browser-based bugs. If you’re the intrepid type and you’d like to help out with this, please pick a browser and OS and start listing any problems you encounter with the website on the wiki. Thanks!

Posted by Jenny under Web Advisory Committee (WAC) & Web Planning | No Comments »

Now that we seem to have cleared the iMIS hurdle, we’ve adjusted our timeframe for next steps. Urban Insight is still working on the iMIS module so that we can grab user information (not just log you in), and then we need to import data such as committees, units, rosters, etc. into the system. Going through all 1500+ active committees was…interesting, but that’s a story for another blog post.

So there’s still a lot to do, and we’re still wrestling a bit with Drupal to make it more intuitive. Given our progress so far, we project that we’ll start alpha testing with the Website Advisory Committee the first week in October. We had several groups volunteer to beta test the site (seven, to be exact), so we hope to begin involving them before the end of October. If all goes well, we’re on track for a November soft launch.

Keep in mind that phase one is the collaborative, virtual workspace for ALA committees and an online sharing space for any communities you want to create. After we get the kinks worked out, we’ll start on phase two, which will include the professional networking pieces. That’s when things get really interesting in terms of helping you make connections with the other 65,000 members of ALA.

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect & Web Advisory Committee (WAC) | No Comments »

Good news to report today. It’s taken longer than anticipated, but we have our first working connection between iMIS and Drupal!

First of all, what is iMIS? If you haven’t heard us throw around this term before, it’s our membership database, and it  tracks all of your dues, committee assignments, round tables and sections memberships, conference registrations, etc. It’s much more than just a database, though, as it’s also the software that lets us update committee rosters each year, send you conference registration info, etc.

We’ve known all along that ALA Connect had to be able to work with iMIS in order for us to be able to tell what your affiliations are within ALA. So it’s with great relief that we can report that last week, our developer - Urban Insight - conducted a successful test that allowed users to log in to ALA Connect (Drupal) using their regular website logins (from iMIS). This is a huge step forward for phase one, as it means you won’t have to memorize yet another login.

Even better, it means we can pre-populate a lot of your profile for you. So if you’re a member of ACRL and you serve on a committee, we’ll fill that in for you ahead of time. As we set up the virtual workspace for your committee, Connect will also give you access to it automatically within the system so that you don’t have to sign up for it manually. Three cheers for saving the user’s time!

This also bodes well for phase two of our project, in which we make all of your data start working hard for you.  We hope to be able to get previous “participations,” as well as current ones, so we should be able to pre-populate your profile with all of the great work you’ve done for ALA in your professional career. That way, if you decide you want to display your profile to colleagues, potential employers, or even publicly, we’ll have created a curriculam vitae of all of your contributions. Pretty cool, right?

But I’m getting ahead of myself, as we have to get phase one out the door first. As work on the iMIS/Drupal module continues, I want to note the great work Urban Insight is doing (go, Ki!), pioneering something I know a lot of other associations are also anxiously awaiting. The folks at RSM McGladrey wrote the original iMIS web service methods (yay, Susan and Bruce!), which are working very well, so we couldn’t have gotten this far without them, either.

It’s exciting to have crossed this bridge, and we should have a new timeline to share soon. Keep watching this site for more updates.

Posted by Jenny under ALAConnect & iMIS | 1 Comment »